Havells set to enter personal care space

KOLKATA: The Noida-based makers of electrical products Havells is venturing into electronic personal care category next month and undertaking a feasibility study to enter into water purifiers to expand its consumer products business.

Havells will roll out products like shavers, trimmers, epilators, hair straighteners and other beauty and personal grooming products. It will initially outsource production of personal care products but plans to start manufacturing in two years, said chairman Anil Rai Gupta.

“There are just couple of high quality brands in the electronic personal care segment which in itself is a big opportunity considering the Rs 1,500 crore market is growing at 25-30%. We would also have separate online exclusive models since a lot of sales of these products take place online,” said Gupta.

The company’s consumer appliances business is growing at more than 20% and is worth Rs 1,500 crore. Havells has expanded into kitchen appliances, garment care, air cooler, water heater and air purifiers in the last two years and is already amongst the top three in water heaters.

“We want to be amongst the top three brands in each and every category in the consumer appliances business. We are also open to entering other allied categories through both organic and inorganic route,” said Gupta.

“Any acquisition will be focussed either on the domestic or emerging markets like Middle-East, Africa and Southeast Asia. We are looking at mid-sized acquisition, anywhere between Rs 200 crore to Rs 2,000 crore,” he said. Havells has an active merger and acquisition team which always evaluate potential targets, he said.

On Thursday the company opened its second Havells World store in Kolkata which acts as an experience zone for its entire range of products. It plans to open 5 such stores in the metros in the next 2 years.